Jim,
Re your comment below:
> I'm afraid you're not familiar enough with
either
> Kurosawa's intent nor the
> "historical events" of Macbeth. Kurosawa has
spoken
> and written extensively
> about his adaptation of Shakespeare's play,
making
> clear his intent to
> transpose the play (not the events) to a
Japanese
> setting. And the events
> of the play that are carried from Macbeth to
Throne
> of Blood are the
> dramatic creations of Shakespeare, not
history.
> Banquo's ghost is not an
> historical event, but a dramatic one created
by
> Shakespeare, and it's
> prominent in Throne of Blood. Same for the
witches
> (three in Shakespeare,
> one in Kurosawa, but serving the same
dramatic
> purpose). The scheming wife,
> floating daggers, the march of the forest toward
the
> castle, the wife's
> suicide, none of these have historical bases,
but
> all are adapted from
> Shakespeare's play into Kurosawa's film.
The
> historical basis of Macbeth,
> btw, is pretty much limited to the murder of
a
> Scottish king by one who
> succeeds him. The play, based loosely on
this
> event, is Shakespeare's
> creation and Kurosawa's basis for Throne of
Blood.
> For Kurosawa, the
> history was damn near irrelevant.
Fine. Then he was taking the PLOT and transposing it to
Japan, then telling the story in his own way. As I said, I
haven't seen THRONE OF BLOOD, which meant that any comment I
made, based on an imperfect understanding borne of not seeing
the film but hearing about it, should be taken with a grain
of salt. In either case, it sounds like Kurosawa was
approaching the source material with more respect than Altman
was, so it isn't really a valid comparison, which was my
original point.
JIM DOHERTY
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